Michigan Will Miss Carr More Than They
Think
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As we are approaching the end of yet another college football
season, one in which Michigan will not win the National Title, Big
Ten title, make a BCS bowl or possibly even end up being ranked
in the final polls, their coach Lloyd Carr has announced his
retirement, pleasing Michigan fans all over the country. Michigan
fans have been calling for Carr’s head for a few years now, all
stemming from his “inability” to beat Ohio State. Sure, beating your
rival is important, but let me tell you something, Michigan will be
hard pressed to find a better football coach and they will miss Lloyd
Carr more than they realize.
In his 13 seasons as the head coach of the maze and blue, Carr
posted a 121-40 record. His 121 wins rank him third all time in
school history. His teams also won 5 Big Ten titles on his watch,
pretty impressive. To add to that, Carr led his Wolverines to 7 BCS
bowl games and won a national title in 1997. It seems ignorant to
vilify a man who has accomplished so much. Yet, the fans only see
his 6-7 record against Ohio State. 6-7 means you’re still winning
every other year on average. Give it a rest Michigan fans, you can’t
win every game every year and you certainly aren’t going to beat a
team like Ohio State on an annual basis.
In today’s era of college football, when parity is the norm and any
team can win on any given day, Carr never posted a losing record.
In fact, he only lost more than 4 games in a season once and only
finished unranked once, in thirteen years! How is that “failing”? It’s
not. That spells success with a capital S.
I agree that certain programs expect certain accomplishments, and
Michigan has the right to expect to compete with any team in the
country given their history and abilities to recruit top notch players.
Yet I could argue that they’ve done that all along during Carr’s
tenure. Sure, to beat your rival is definitely a great feeling, it’s
important and when you do it in the Big Ten conference, it’s
impressive. However, isn’t it more impressive over a 13 year span
to win 121 games, 5 conference titles, appear in 7 BCS games and
win a national title? I think I’d take that out of a head coach any
day. Oh by the way, he still managed to beat his rival 6 times.
When this Carr is finally parked after Michigan's bowl game, the
fans will see, they'll miss him more than they thought.
